OnlyBucs

In the "B" game, it's 2-2 bottom of 7th

Matt Frazier breaks up the no no. After a GIDP by Nick Gonzalez, Drew Maggi breaks up the shut out with a solo HR

I realize that Tyler Chatwood had little chance to join the team for Opening Day, but his first two outings have been very bad. Hopefully he can put it together, and become an option for the Pirates later this season.

I think folks need to accept and be prepared for the reality that our starting rotation is terrible.



Even if the lineup is a bit better (and it might be), the starting rotation will hold this team down and keep it in the 60-65 win range.

Accepted. Not recently, either.

7351425F5C595E51724553535F300 wrote: I think folks need to accept and be prepared for the reality that our starting rotation is terrible.



Even if the lineup is a bit better (and it might be), the starting rotation will hold this team down and keep it in the 60-65 win range.
Hopefully, Keller can build on last year and be consistently effective. Maybe Hill can be their Quintana. Contreras needs to be effective but it seems to take pitching prospects several years to put it all together. This will be Brubaker's 4th year so if he's going to be a reliable starter, it should become evident soon. Velasquez might not be any better than Thompson or Wilson were last year. Oviedo and Ortiz are question marks.



The hitting is also questionable. Of course the ban on shifts will help all teams and those who benefit the most will be those with the best hitters. So it's not going to allow the Pirates to close the gap between their hitting and that of other teams. Santana is well past his prime and Choi isn't much. So I don't expect much more production at 1B/DH than they had last year. I'd like to see Bae get a lot of PT but it seems Castro has the edge at 2B. Hayes has to hit better, but can he? It would be great to see Cruz have a big year. I'm hopeful for 30 HRs, but who knows? Hedges is an automatic out but maybe Davis or Rodriquez can contribute at some point. Cutch is past his prime, Reynolds wants to be traded and Suwinski batted .202 last year. And then there's the Shelton factor to contend with. Hot hitters will sit so that non-hitters can play and effective pitchers will be pulled on low pitch counts so that ineffective relievers can take over.

That management strategy is what concerns me. Last year they were definitely experimenting to see how people performed in different situations. I'm hoping this year they try to win games.

You mean like moving outfielders?  They did it in 2023; this week.



I doubt that it was done without some input from above the manager, too.

CF could become a revolving door. Suwinski, Swag , Bae and I think Smith N plays it. Cal Mitchell kinda left out